In their anxiety to condemn the Right to Education Act (RTE), a host of opinion-makers have missed some very obvious points. They have focused (“The right lesson”, April 1) on how the RTE Act will impose a heavy burden on private schools which will now have to reserve a fourth of their seats for poor children or for SC/ST/OBC groups. Some newspapers have talked of how this will force private schools to raise fees for the other 75 per cent students. Other objections raised include the possibility that teacher salaries may go up in unrecognised schools if they have to start hiring teachers with BEd degrees; or that their infrastructure costs will go up. All of these may be valid points, but the critics are ignoring vital aspects of the RTE.
For one, it is a voucher program, something that most opinion-makers seem to be asking for! Instead of the government spending more money on creating schools for everyone below the age of 14, the government is willing to pay private sector schools to do the job at a lower cost.
It is true the vouchers are not being given to parents who can choose which school to go to, and that a lottery will be conducted to decide who goes to which private school, but this is a step in the right direction. And the government must be encouraged when it is doing the right thing.
Sanjay Tripathi, New Delhi